Doula/Childbirth Educator

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Birth Story: Julianne and Micah, First time mom

Julianne and Micah were referred to me by a prior client. I guess that is the best thing to have happen, huh? They were expecting their first baby and I was amazed to finally have a client that was a “primigravida.” To this point, they have all been “multigravida’s.” It did help that Micah is one of 7 children and Julianne one of 4, both their mothers did natural childbirth. So, Julianne and Micah were very enthusiastic about the fact that NCB is normal and absolutely possible.

Julianne was about 3-4 cm’s from about 38.5 weeks. Once she reached 40 weeks she had an appointment with her OB and decided to have him strip her membranes. The next day, following the appointment, she called me in the morning to let me know that she had been contracting since 4 a.m. They were fairly consistent at about 5-6 minutes apart. We would check in with each other throughout the morning and I suggested that maybe they go see a movie or do something outside the house (if she were up for it) to keep her mind off of counting ctx’s. Because at that point it was still the excitement stage.

Around noon, Micah called and said they decided to stay home since the ctx’s were getting more intense and would just keep me posted. I told him what I was looking for from Julianne, in way of ctx’s in order to know if she was getting closer. About an hour later he called and said he thought it would be good for me to come at that point.

I got to their house (beautiful, btw.. and Micah is quite the handyman.. he made their baby bed himself!) around 2 o’clock in the afternoon to find Julianne upstairs in their master bedroom lying in a side lying position on her floor. She looked so beautiful. Handling the ctx’s (then at 4-5 min apart since 4 am), wonderfully and just calmly breathing through each one. I suggested she stay there and rest for an hour or so, since she was obviously in the “worker mode.” She was definitely in active labor. So exciting.

At around 4 pm i suggested she try walking around downstairs to help baby drop some (water was still in tact at this point) and try the ctx’s in a squatting position when she got one, to help baby’s position. She did great and of course those ctx’s sped up to 3-4 min apart and then started to last longer than a minute. After about an hour downstairs, with the timing of thectx’s and the change in Julianne’s concentration with them, I could tell it was time to head to the hospital so that she could do transition there, instead of in a car. She got some OJ before heading out, she felt a bit shaky, and off to the hospital we went. We left the house at 5:40 p.m.

We got to the hospital, which was not busy at all, and they put us in an L&D room that is across the hall from their main nurses station. It is very out of the way and quiet. Perfect. Julianne, was checked and found to be at 6-7 /90/-1. Awesome. And within about 15 minutes of getting to the hospital you could see the definite change into transition. Not that Julianne was anything less than controlled, but the ctx’s were lasting over 90 seconds and coming every 2-3 minutes. I kept telling her how easy she was making it look, but I don’t think she believed me. As a first time mom, she blew me out of the water. Seriously. She was so calm and best of all, CONTROLLED.

After an hour of rest in the bed (side lying), sitting on the toilet (a great place to labor) and moving about, she was standing at the end of the bed leaning against the birth ball. I was behind her applying counter pressure on her back with the tennis balls when I said, “hey, you know I have got on much better shoes than I had when Greta’s (past client who had referred them) water broke. So feel free to let go whenever you want.” haha.. I thought to myself. No sooner did I get that out of my mouth and then “gush.” Her water broke (although, none got on my shoes, just hers). 😉

Obviously, at that point the ctx’s get more intense and she stays standing/rocking until the doc, who wants to check her, comes in and Julianne is 9cm/100/0. Julianne wants to head back to the bathroom to sit. The toilet is truly a wonderful place to transition because you are so much more free to drop your hips/bottom, open your legs wide and help that baby come down. After about 20 minutes, she says she is feeling some pressure and that maybe she should push. She wants to head back to the bed. So the nurse finds her to be 10/100/+1. At this point, I tell the nurse that I’d love for us to wait for her to start pushing until she is at least +2 and has a strong urge to push. The nurse (fabulous, btw) agrees and so Julianne decides.. yep, back to the bathroom. She was there for about 30 minutes, yes at 10 cm’s, but waiting on that natural urge to push and allowing the uterus to do some more work for her. Then the urge to push comes and she starts the pushing.

She tried several positions and seemed to like the side lying best and after a little while to get used to what she needed to do, at 9:08 (40 minutes of pushing!! Fantastic) she pushed out her sweet little boy, Jeremiah. She had a delayed cord clamp, and held that little man for almost an hour before anyone asked her to hand him over. It was heavenly. The doctor, the nurses- all amazing. Of course, the trooper of them all, Julianne, did an incredible job and looked like a Pro at it the whole time. She trusted her body and stayed calm and controlled the entire time. It truly was a text book NCB. And as my first primigravida, let me just say, I hope they all do that well! ;-P Good job Julianne and Micah!